Tag: Chip Kelly

Former Duck linebacker Kiko Alonso retires from the NFL

Former Oregon linebacker Kiko Alonso signed a contract with the New Orleans Saints before retiring.

In a ceremonial move, Kiko Alonso signed a contract with the New Orleans Saints and then promptly retired, ending a six-year career in the NFL.

The former Oregon Duck linebacker was drafted in the second round by Buffalo in 2013, but unfortunately, he was hampered by a series of injuries. He missed the 2014 season and then moved on to Philadelphia where he was united with Chip Kelly.

But that reunion lasted just a season and Alonso moved to South Beach in Miami where he spent the next three seasons.

Alonso had his most productive years with the Dolphins (2016-18), he averaged almost 120 tackles, had five picks, and scored his only professional touchdown.

With his career seemingly on track, Alonso went to New Orleans. Unfortunately, he suffered a devastating knee injury in the Saints’ Wild Card loss at Minnesota in 2020.

After rehabbing for the better part of two seasons, Alonso had enough.

As a Duck, he had an integral part of the defense in 2011 and 2012 that helped Oregon win the Rose Bowl for the time since 1963 with a victory over Wisconsin. In that game, Alonso had a key interception in the second half of Russell Wilson, which set up a go-ahead score.

In his four seasons in Eugene, Alonso racked up 144 tackles and six interceptions.

The best player Oregon will face each week during the 2022 season

Oregon will face plenty of talent on the other side of the field this season. Here is the best player for each of the Ducks’ opponents in 2022.

Aside from one or two opponents, there are almost no gimmes on the 2022 Oregon Duck football schedule this season. Although the official strength-of-schedule is somewhere in the middle, don’t tell that to the actual players and coaches who have to prepare for the Georgia, BYU and Utah.

Besides the teams as a whole, Oregon is going to face some very good players that will present many problems for coordinators Kenny Dillingham on the offense and Tosh Lupoi on defense.

We’ve decided to go through the Ducks’ schedule and figure out which player week-to-week will cause those coaches to lose the most sleep as Oregon looks to go through the fall.

It would have been easy to just pick the quarterback from each team, but that wouldn’t be fair to the other highly talented players that the Ducks will see on the field this year. Sometimes, yes, the quarterback will be that team’s best player, but not always. Here’s a look at the best player Oregon will face each week.

10 Power Five football head coaches who need a strong first month of the season

These coaches could find themselves on the hot seat if their teams have a rough start.

We’re still more than a month away from toe meeting leather when Week 0 college football action kicks off, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to take a look at coaches who could be in a bit of trouble entering the 2022 season.

A number of coaches in the Power Five survived last fall by the skin of their teeth and enter this season under quite a bit of pressure to turn things around quickly. Others are early in their tenure but have still yet to deliver much in the way of proof of concept and face what could prove to be pivotal campaigns.

We saw an absurd amount of movement within the Power Five during this past coaching carousel, and given the changing state of college football and the amount of money in coaching, that’s a trend that we likely haven’t seen the last of.

Early impressions during the first month of the season can be crucial in determining a coach’s ultimate fate. With that in mind, here are 10 guys who need those impressions to be positive. Not all of these coaches are necessarily on the hot seat, but they all need strong starts to keep perception on their side — or, in some cases, get it back on their side.

A look back at the game that kickstarted Kyler Murray’s 2018 Heisman campaign

An in-person perspective at the game that kickstarted Kyler Murray’s Heisman campaign back in 2018.

It was September of my senior year of high school. I hadn’t decided where to go to college yet, so I was still going on campus visits. On the second weekend of September, my dad and I drove up to Norman, Oklahoma, for my first visit to the University of Oklahoma. It involves a man who recently became a lot richer; Arizona Cardinals QB and former Sooner Kyler Murray.

The actual tour was fine. It was raining and cold all weekend, so nothing really stuck out to me on the first visit. I wouldn’t fall in love with the campus until my second visit a few months later.

After the campus tour, we went to my very first Sooners game. Chip Kelly and the UCLA Bruins were in town.

This just happened to be Kyler Murray’s first year as the starting QB at OU. Murray would go on to win the Heisman this season as well. Before that day, I didn’t realize just how good he was.

Before I decided to go to OU, college athletics weren’t something my dad or I followed closely. We followed the NHL, NFL, MLB, and the NBA, but there just wasn’t a fit for college sports.

College football was just something I wasn’t well versed in going into the season Murray won the Heisman. I had seen the highlights of Baker, most notably the Kansas thing, but nothing from Murray.

Kyler Murray showed me what I had been missing at the expense of UCLA’s defense.

Never before had I seen someone singlehandedly dominate a defense in-person like [autotag]Kyler Murray[/autotag] did that day. It was like they were playing different sports.

He ran all over them, then he would show off his arm. There was no flaw to his game. It was incredible to watch. The atmosphere, the fans, the butt-kicking, it was great to take in. Although I didn’t know it then, I finally had a college team to root for: my Oklahoma Sooners.

On that day, Murray was 19 of 33 for 301 yards and three touchdowns. He also carried the ball 10 times for 69 yards and two touchdowns, leading the Sooners in rushing. This was Murray’s second game as the starting quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners. He was good in the season opener against FAU, but his performance against the Bruins was his coming-out party.

Murray would provide more fireworks on his way to winning the Heisman trophy in 2018. He had 10 300-yard passing days and 10 games with more than 50 yards rushing. He threw for 4,361 yards, 42 touchdowns, and ran for 1,001 yards and 12 more touchdowns.

Here we are almost four years later, and so many things have changed. Murray has gotten his first big extension in the NFL, the Sooners are will enter 2022 with a new head coach, and the SEC move is on the horizon.

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Which college football coaches are joining Scott Frost on the hot seat

Who do you think will be joining Scott Frost on the hot seat in 2022?

We’ve talked before about the fact that Nebraska head football coach Scott Frost is on the hot seat. It’s no surprise to anyone. A 15-29 overall record and zero bowl games in four seasons will and should put you on the hot seat. So who are the other coaches that will join Frost with tenuous job security? ESPN senior writer Adam Rittenberg has put together a list highlighting the additional Power 5 coaches that need to win in 2022, or they could be looking for a new job. I have to say that I agree with almost every selection on this list. Scroll below and let us know what you think of the hot seat coaches heading into 2022.

Oregon announces the Hall of Fame Class of 2022

The University of Oregon announced a truly great Hall of Fame Class of 2022.

All hall of fame classes has greatness. That’s why they’re in the hall of fame.

But when the University of Oregon announced the Class of 2022, they weren’t messing around where it comes to greatness.

This particular class includes perhaps the greatest team in their sport, a coach that put his sport on the national map, a seven-time NCAA champ and 10-time All-American, a golfer that has achieved what no other Duck golfer had before, and the first women’s tennis player ever to be inducted into the UO Athletic Hall of Fame.

Every class is unique, but this group of Hall of Famers are legitimate Oregon legends and they’ll all be remembered as such.

Ducks among nation’s elite when it comes to beating Top-25 teams in past decade

When it comes to beating teams ranked inside the Top-25, there are few teams with a better winning percentage than the Ducks since 2010.

A lot of times in the college football offseason, we tend to look at the history of the sport and determine which teams are the best. We take winning percentage into account, seeing which schools have been the most dominant over the decades. Of course, it is usually the blue bloods — schools like Ohio State, USC, Texas, Nebraska, etc. — that stand out.

But recently, 247Sports looked at dominance in college football through a different lens. They wanted to see who was the best of the best when it came to the past decade. Even more than that, they wanted to see who was the best against the best teams over the past decade.

To determine that, they looked at every school’s winning percentage against top-25 teams since 2010, and established a ranking from that. For fans of the Oregon Ducks, this is a fun exercise.

Oregon may not have the historical relevance that an Ohio State or USC does, but over the past 10-15 years, they’ve been as good as almost anyone in the nation.

So where do they sit in the rankings of the best teams in the last decade? Take a look…

Dillon Gabriel among most impactful QB transfers per USA TODAY Sports

Dillon Gabriel comes in at No. 2 in USA TODAY Sports’ top 10 most impactful transfer quarterbacks of 2022.

The spring game finally allowed Oklahoma fans to see the latest quarterback addition through the transfer portal, [autotag]Dillon Gabriel[/autotag]. With anticipation of his debut building for months, Gabriel was the player most fans and analysts were excited to watch.

In Oklahoma’s spring game, he didn’t disappoint, completing 65% of his passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns. He showed what made him a coveted transfer portal option for the Sooners and many schools in the Power Five.

Gabriel was interested in Ole Miss before Jeff Lebby was hired away to Oklahoma. Gabriel was at UCLA and had a great chance to take the starting job in Chip Kelly’s offense. Immediately upon [autotag]Caleb Williams[/autotag]’ entrance into the transfer portal, Gabriel announced he was moving to Norman. Stocked with one of the 10 best quarterbacks in the country, the Oklahoma Sooners look primed to contend for the Big 12 championship once again.

With spring ball wrapped up, Paul Myerburg looks at the ten most impactful transfer portal quarterbacks, and Dillon Gabriel comes in at No. 2, sandwiched between Caleb Williams at No. 1 and [autotag]Spencer Rattler[/autotag] at No. 3.

Beyond his two-plus years of starting experience at UCF and his sterling touchdown-to-interception ratio (70-14), Gabriel seems poised to flourish with the Sooners due to his connection to new offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, who previously held the same position with the Knights. He’s a great fit for the scheme and accompanying skill talent as the Brent Venables era gets underway in Norman. – Myerburg, USA TODAY Sports

Gabriel also comes in ahead of Jaxson Dart, J.T. Daniels, Adrian Martinez, and Quinn Ewers.

The Oklahoma Sooners got a good player in Dillon Gabriel. Despite his experience and production, Gabriel comes into 2022 with something to prove after a shoulder injury sidelined him for much of 2021. Gabriel’s led from the beginning with his work ethic on the field and his relationship building off of it.

In the spring game, Dillon Gabriel gave us a glimpse of the talent he will unleash on the Big 12 stage. September can’t get here quick enough.

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‘I feel like it’s a Chip Kelly offense from back in the day, just utilizing everybody’

WR Seven McGee didn’t hold back when professing his love for Kenny Dillingham’s new offense with the Ducks.

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It’s pretty hard to argue about when the peak of Oregon Ducks football was.

The actual mountain top came in the 2014-15 season when Marcus Mariota and the Ducks reached the national championship game under Mark Helfrich. However, you’d be hard-pressed to find any Oregon fan that would tell you it was anyone other than Chip Kelly who got the Ducks to the peak of their powers at the start of last decade.

Since then, Oregon has struggled to find an explosive offensive identity, undergoing the single season of Willie Taggart at the helm, followed by the successful, yet conservative, ground-and-pound years of Mario Cristobal.

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With a new staff in the mix, though, a new era of Oregon football is set to take place.

When talking with wide receiver Seven McGee on Thursday about what he liked in the new offense, the sophomore gave some incredibly high praise.

“I love the offense. I feel like it’s a Chip Kelly offense from back in the day, just utilizing everybody,” McGee said. “Like I said before, just putting people in a position to win great 1-on-1 matchups.”

The offense was a major selling point for McGee when deciding not to transfer away from the Ducks this past offseason. He says that Dan Lanning got on the phone with him to lay out their plans for that side of the ball, and a mix of vertical attacks and an emphasis on capitalizing on matchups is what stood out to McGee.

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“Just to utilize me everywhere in the field, which is something that we didn’t do last year,” McGee said. “As a team, just moving parts and putting people in places to create one on one matchups. That’s why Coach Lanning and Coach Dillingham are great right now with the offensive scheme. Obviously, Coach Lanning is a defensive coach which is great because he knows the leverages of defense — he had the number one defense, arguably, ever to play the game.” 

Chip Kelly changed the game of college football a decade ago with his no-huddle spread offense that emphasized read options and quick tempo. None of this is to say that Kenny Dillingham is going to transcend the game as Kelly did, but it is encouraging to hear some of the players enthralled with the potential.

While we’ve only seen glimpses of what the offense can look like in practice so far, Saturday’s spring game will offer a great view at just how exciting the new scheme will be. It’s likely that Dillingham won’t show all of his cards just yet, but you can guarantee that he pulls out a couple of tricks out of his sleeve just to let fans — and recruits — see a bit of what Oregon is in for this season.

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8 biggest NFL draft do-overs for the Eagles during the Howie Roseman era

8 biggest NFL draft do-overs for the Philadelphia Eagles during the Howie Roseman era

We’re just eight days away from the first round of the 2022 NFL draft kicking off and it’ll be a career-defining moment for Eagles GM Howie Roseman.

Roseman has been hit or miss in the first round, making some of his best moves in rounds three-seven or with undrafted free agents.

Philadelphia has two first-round picks scheduled for next Thursday night and it’ll be imperative for the organization’s top decision-makers to be all on the same page regarding the best player on the board.

The majority of Roseman’s criticism stems from poor decisions in the first or second round that have set a talented roster back years, and we’re taking a what-if approach to all the failed moves.

Here are eight of Philadelphia’s biggest NFL draft do-overs during the Howie Roseman era and the player that should have been selected.